What Does Mobilize Do In Magic: The Gathering?

Tarkir’s Mardu Clan combines the most aggressive traits of white, black, and red in Magic: The Gathering. That’s especially true after the introduction of mobilize, an ability that ensures your opponents will usually be outnumbered whenever it’s your turn to attack.

Magic The Gathering collage image of three Mardu Commanders

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Mobilize seems pretty simple at face value – attack, and get more creatures to attack with. As with anything in Magic, though, there are some key rules to be aware of before marching into battle at the head of your mighty horde. Start sleeving up some extra Warrior tokens!

How Does Mobilize Work In Magic: The Gathering?

Mobilize is an ability that some creatures have, and it always has a number next to it – mobilize 1, mobilize 3, or mobilize X, for example. Whenever a creature with mobilize attacks, its controller puts that number of red Warrior creature tokens into play tapped and attacking. If any of those tokens survive combat, they are sacrificed at the beginning of the next end step.

The Warrior tokens created by mobilize are always red, even if the mobilizing creature isn’t.

If multiple creatures with mobilize attack at once, they all create their tokens. For example, if a creature with mobilize 2 and another with mobilize 3 both attack at the same time, their controller gets five 1/1 red Warrior tokens.

Magic The Gathering collage image of three Boros Commanders

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Important Things To Know About Mobilize

Creating the Warrior tokens is not optional – if a creature with mobilize attacks, the tokens will appear even if it would somehow disadvantageous to their controller. If you don’t want the Warriors to show up, don’t attack with the mobilizing creature.

The Warrior tokens are already considered to be tapped and attacking when they enter. That means they don’t trigger any abilities that occur when a creature attacks or becomes tapped. However, if a card like Karlach, Fury Of Avernus causes them to untap and fight a second combat phase, they will trigger those effects when they tap and attack normally.

In that case, though, creatures with mobilize will create another set of Warrior tokens to join the fight!

If there is more than one valid target for the Warrior tokens to attack when they are created by mobilize, such as planeswalkers or multiple players in a Commander game, the controller of the tokens chooses an attack target for each; they don’t all have to choose the same target, nor do they have to attack the same target as the creature that mobilized them. Once their attack targets are chosen, the Warrior tokens can be blocked following the normal rules.